External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar recently gave a no-holds barred interview to the Asian News International (ANI) podcast with Smita Prakash where he took apart the recent interference from foreign media organisations into Indian politics and also described the broader picture of India’s foreign policy.

Speaking about the recent documentary by the British Broadcast Corporation on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EAM Jaishankar said that “I can’t tell you if election season has started in India or not, but it has definitely started in London and New York.”

Politics by other means

“We are not debating just a documentary or just a speech that somebody gave in a European city or a newspaper editorial somewhere. We are debating the politics being conducted ostensibly,” he said.

“There is a phrase, 'war by other means', this is politics by other means. You can’t just do a hatchet job and say well you know this is just another quest for truth we just decided to put out twenty years later. Do you think the timing is accidental?” he added.

When asked what he thought of the political rise of PM Modi and the rise of India happening at the same time, he responded saying that it was not acceptable to some people in Western capitals and some in the national quarters too.  

Politics of India doesn’t stop at its borders, doesn’t even originate within India

Jaishankar went on to add: “What is happening is (they are trying to) shape a very extremist image of India and the PM, this has been going on for a decade. Politics of India doesn’t stop at its borders, sometimes it doesn’t even originate within its borders it comes from outside.

"Ideas and agendas come from outside. Why suddenly there is a surge of reports and views? Were these things not happening earlier? Many things happened in Delhi in 1984, why did we not see anything about that,” he asked.

“Don’t kid yourselves, this is politics at play by people who do not have the courage to come in the field and stay inside a cover, saying I am an NGO or a media cover,” he concluded.

While he refused to say that there is an international conspiracy or coordinated propaganda against the PM, he went on to add: “There is an ideology, there is a mindset, and there is an attempt (to damage the image of India).”

Speaking further on the designation of India an as “electoral autocracy” by the Swedish V-Dem Institute, he said, “I like you, you win elections, great democracy. I don’t like you, you win elections, what are you? An ‘Electoral autocracy’. What a great term. That’s reserved for people you don’t like who win elections.”